Tag: Christmas

cover of picture book titled "Between Us and Abuela"
Posted in PB, So Many Good Books

Between Us and Abuela

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Perfect Picture Book Friday

Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story from the Border (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019) by Mitali Perkins and illustrated by Sara Palacios is a good story to introduce what’s it like to have family on opposite sides of the line between two countries. And it’s still a timely story.

Maria and her little brother Juan have not seen their grandmother for five years. Maria and her mother knit a scarf for Abuela and Juan makes a picture. But when they are at the fence of the border and get to see their grandmother nothing can be passed through. Juan is brokenhearted. Maria turns his picture into a kite and they fly it across the border.

Mitali has lived in six countries and knows what it is like to leave people behind. Read about her here and check out her books here. Plus, she’s one really nice lady–I got to meet her in February.

See Sara’s illustrations here. Read about her here and see her many books here.

cover of Greenglass House - a drawing of fantastical house in a forest with snow
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Greenglass House

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

I love when a book does something unexpected that makes me wonder if I should read the whole thing again to see what hints I missed. Greenglass House (Clarion Books, 2014) by Kate Milford is one of those.

In a fascinating old inn that smugglers use and his parents run, twelve-year-old Milo Pine expects to get to relax for Christmas vacation. But then these people keep showing up (and getting to this inn is not easy in winter) and they all seem to want something connected to the old house. Milo, and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, plan to figure out what is going on.

This Roaming World book is a New York Times Bestseller, National Book Award Nominee, Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, and Nebula/Andre Norton Award Nominee.

There’s a sequel, The Ghosts of Greenglass House, a companion book that Milo is reading in Greenglass House—The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book, and more. Check them all out here. The newest one, Rialto, comes out next month.